UBS Group Issues Positive Forecast for Progressive (NYSE:PGR) Stock Price

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) had its price objective upped by UBS Group from $275.00 to $285.00 in a research report sent to investors on Friday morning,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a neutral rating on the insurance provider’s stock.

Several other research firms have also commented on PGR. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Progressive from $264.00 to $285.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday. HSBC lowered shares of Progressive from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $267.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Progressive from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday. Hsbc Global Res lowered shares of Progressive from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, Raymond James raised shares of Progressive from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $305.00 target price for the company in a report on Thursday, December 26th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Progressive presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $281.76.

Progressive Price Performance

PGR opened at $283.87 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a quick ratio of 0.30 and a current ratio of 0.31. The stock has a market capitalization of $166.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.71, a P/E/G ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.35. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $258.14 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $253.97. Progressive has a 52-week low of $199.57 and a 52-week high of $287.49.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The insurance provider reported $4.08 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.44 by $0.64. Progressive had a net margin of 11.25% and a return on equity of 33.79%. As a group, analysts predict that Progressive will post 14.68 EPS for the current year.

Progressive Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 11th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.10 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 3rd. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.14%. Progressive’s dividend payout ratio is currently 2.78%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CIO Jonathan S. Bauer sold 1,227 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.00, for a total transaction of $344,787.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive now directly owns 28,393 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,978,433. This represents a 4.14 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Patrick K. Callahan sold 4,669 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $279.70, for a total value of $1,305,919.30. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 15,191 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,248,922.70. This represents a 23.51 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 62,257 shares of company stock worth $15,752,781. 0.34% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. TFR Capital LLC. bought a new stake in Progressive in the fourth quarter worth $1,712,000. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH bought a new stake in Progressive in the fourth quarter worth $118,434,000. Employees Retirement System of Texas lifted its position in Progressive by 112.0% in the fourth quarter. Employees Retirement System of Texas now owns 34,541 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $8,276,000 after buying an additional 18,250 shares during the last quarter. Fidelity D & D Bancorp Inc. lifted its position in Progressive by 44.3% in the fourth quarter. Fidelity D & D Bancorp Inc. now owns 2,606 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $624,000 after buying an additional 800 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital A Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Progressive in the fourth quarter worth $359,000. 85.34% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Progressive Company Profile

The Progressive Corporation, an insurance holding company, provides personal and commercial auto, personal residential and commercial property, business related general liability, and other specialty property-casualty insurance products and related services in the United States. It operates in three segments: Personal Lines, Commercial Lines, and Property.